C'tee to Vote Soon on Women's Retirement Age

Chairman Moshe Gafni of the Knesset Finance Committee said, Tuesday, that he will schedule a vote in the next few weeks on a proposal to raise the retirement age for women from 62 to 64. Following committee discussion of the proposal, the United Torah Judaism lawmaker said that if the committee does not take a vote, the change will take place automatically in 2012. He said raising the age to 67 would require a change in the law.

Deputy Governor Karnit Flug of the Bank of Israel told the committee that most countries have a retirement age of 65,while the median age is 62. She added that even if the age is raised to 64, there will still be a gap between the retirement age for women and the retirement age for men, noting that by the year 2050, there will only be four other countries in the Organization for Economic Coordination and Development with gaps, if the Israeli age stays at 62.